NFL Invades Washington D.C.

By AP&nbsp|&nbsp

Posted: Tue 1:53 PM, Mar 24, 2009

Politics has always been a contact sport, and the National Football League is suiting up for the game.

The NFL has established a Washington office in the last year,hired a full-time lobbyist and created a political action committeeto make federal campaign donations. The moves come as a workstoppage looms as a possibility in two years, which could generatesome unwelcome congressional attention for the league.

The NFL also is facing more immediate controversies from howgames are broadcast to whether a ban on Internet gambling on gamesshould be continued.

Commissioner Roger Goodell, the son of a former New YorkRepublican congressman and senator, orchestrated the Washingtonblitz after talking with owners on the league's legislativecommittee three years ago. That committee was making a presentationto the owners on Tuesday at the NFL's annual meeting in California.

"I agreed with those who told me that during these changingtimes in Washington, the league should have full-timerepresentation there like so many other business and entertainmentorganizations that have issues on the Hill," Goodell told TheAssociated Press in a statement.

Coincidentally or not, the NFL player's union last week choseWashington lawyer DeMaurice Smith as its new executive director,replacing the late Gene Upshaw, who had predicted a lockout. Smithserved on the Obama transition team and previously worked for EricHolder, who is the nation's attorney general.

Washington Redskins safety Fred Smoot said he thinks Smith'sconnections will come in handy if Congress gets involved in an NFLwork stoppage.

"He knows all the steps to take, and I think we made a verysmart decision on that," Smoot said during a recent visit toCapitol Hill to lobby for a fitness bill.

"I'm a lifelong NFL fan, grew up in Wisconsin, rooted for thePackers at my father's knee every Sunday," Miller told The AP inhis first interview since taking the job. "I had had opportunitiesin the past to leave the Hill and do other things, such as work ata law firm and lobby firm. But when the NFL calls, you can't turnthat down."

Among his tasks: Leading the effort among major sports leaguesto protect a ban on Internet gambling, which some members ofCongress want to overturn.

"We want to maintain the integrity of the game, and gamblingthreatens that," he said.

Miller said the league will also be watching as Congress renewssatellite broadcasting legislation. The NFL must respond to anychanges, Miller said, "because so much of our business is findingthe most fan-friendly way to get our games to the people who wantto watch them."

Members of Congress have criticized some of the NFL'sbroadcasting policies. Last year, for example, 13 senators wrote toGoodell, asking him to make NFL Network games available to morefans on free television. The league has said it provides freebroadcasts in the home cities of competing teams, but the senatorsargued that the NFL too narrowly interprets "home markets."

Prior to Miller's hiring, the NFL outsourced its Washington workto outside lobbyists, and has continued to do that on some issues.

"The emphasis is to have a full-time person spending everywaking moment thinking about how what Congress or theadministration is doing is going to affect the NFL's businessmodel," Miller said.

Miller's operation is overseen by NFL vice president Joe Browne,who is based at league headquarters in New York. In a phoneinterview, Browne said the league looked around, and saw that otherentertainment businesses and sports had full-time Washingtonoperations. Major League Baseball, for example, brought on afull-time lobbyist in 2000.

"It was time for us to come into the 21st century," Brownesaid. He pointed out that Goodell, given his political lineage -his father was Charles Goodell, who served in the House in the1960s and the Senate from 1968-71, "appreciates the role thatCongress plays perhaps more than some do."

Browne coined the name of the NFL's new "Gridiron PAC," whichraised $313,000 through the end of last year, the most recentreporting period. Donors included NFL officials such as Goodell, aswell as owners and executives of all but two of the league's 32teams. The only holdouts: the Oakland Raiders, owned by longtimeleague nemesis Al Davis, and the Cleveland Browns. Neither teamreturned telephone messages seeking comment.

The PAC's first campaign donations will show up in quarterlydisclosures next month.

Browne said the prospect of labor troubles wasn't a factor inestablishing the PAC and the Washington office, noting that overthe years, the league and the union have come before Congresstogether to work for common goals. But the NFL's long history oflabor peace is in jeopardy; last year, the owners voted to opt outof the current collective bargaining agreement in 2011, raising thepossibility of a work stoppage in two years.

If baseball's experience with the 1994-95 strike is anyindication, the NFL could be in for some unfriendly reaction onCapitol Hill. Several lawmakers introduced legislation to take awayMLB's coveted antitrust exemption after the 232-day strike wipedout the 1994 World Series.

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